This publication provides information about the basic and expanded Confidentialised Unit Record Files (CURF) from the 2003-04 Household Expenditure Survey (HES) and Survey of Income and Housing (SIH). Four microdata files are available from these surveys:

a basic HES CURF available on CD-ROM or through the Remote Access Data Laboratory (RADL),

a basic SIH CURF available on CD-ROM or through the RADL,

an expanded HES CURF accessible only through the RADL, and

an expanded SIH CURF accessible only through the RADL.

The expanded CURFs contain more detailed data for some variables than the basic CURFs, as well as some additional variables.

The RADL is a secure on-line data query service that clients can access via the ABS website. Because the CURFs are kept within the ABS environment, the ABS is able to release more detailed data via the RADL than can be made available on CD-ROM. Further information about this facility is available on the ABS website (see Services We Provide, CURFs).